As I thought about it more and various things piqued my interest, I settled on the final flavor profile: strawberry, dragon fruit and black sesame. I want to document all the different components that went into this dessert here not only for having a place with richer context for the final result, but as a reference to myself to find some of what worked best for later reference. A birthday diary, if you will.
First, the cake - I wanted to make a strawberry cake since the fruit is in season and wonderfully flavorful, and my favorite recipe is, unsurprisingly, from Sally's Baking Addition (link). I wanted an ombre look (are we doing technique bingo? we should haha) so I replaced a quarter of the strawberry puree with thawed pitaya puree (pink dragonfruit) for a brighter pink in one of the batches, followed the recipe exactly in another, and substituted 1tbsp of liquid in the third with white coloring for a lighter pink. I baked each in a half sheet pan, then cooled thoroughly before cutting out the numbers using a template.
I knew from the start that the buttercream would have to be Swiss Meringue Buttercream - it's my favorite, it's light and silky and would be the perfect texture to showcase in a naked cake design. My dear husband volunteered to make the buttercream for me as his contribution to my birthday dessert and I happily presented him with my all time go to recipe, the one from Liv (link). Perfect execution, made me proud :) For the black sesame flavor, he added 1/4 cup of black sesame powder after it was perfectly fluffy and velvety, whisked it in and it was a beautiful thing.
I noticed a related link for German Buttercream and I was intrigued, so I went down that rabbithole as well. I first made the creme patissiere, then incorporated it in fluffed up butter and whisked in reduced strawberry puree for a mildly sweet, incredibly creamy buttercream.
Toppings
The toppings are where I got to flex my technique muscles/try new things. I wasn't good about taking progress shots of each one as many of these happened late at night with Netflix playing in the background, but see if you can spy them on the finished cake :)
- chocolate cookie chips: I adapted this recipe for the cookie topping for melon buns to incorporate cocoa powder, and cut them in thin circles that I baked until lightly crisp and trimmed to a neat circle when still hot.
- cream puffs: I made regular cream puffs (1/4 recipe) but piped them really small and baked half of them with a thin wafer of the above mentioned cookie dough on top, it worked as a chocolate craquelin in a pinch. The second half of the cream puffs got dipped in a simple dragon fruit sugar glaze (powder sugar, a few drops of pitaya puree). I filled all of them with chocolate buttercream.
- white chocolate mousse spheres: I melted white chocolate with a simmer mixture of coconut cream, vanilla bean and glucose, then mixed in a bit more cream and chilled until set in the fridge. Later, I whisked it until fluffy and piped into spherical molds that went into the freezer until ready to use. Lesson learned - coconut cream does not like heat, it held up nicely in the fridge after assembly though.
- air sprayed macarons with dragon fruit jelly filling: the one and only Not so humble pie recipe finally broke my bad streak of sad macarons in the new oven. I got smooth and perfectly risen cookies with consistent texture, and I piped some with spiky edges and basil seeds on top to look like slices of dragon fruit. I then air sprayed them hot pink to look like the pink skin of the fruit and filled them with black sesame buttercream sandwiched with pitaya jelly.
- strawberry macarons with white chocolate coconut mousse filling: I followed the same recipe from above, but added pulverized freeze dried strawberries (to replace some of the powder sugar), probably a bit too much as I struggled to get the consistency quite right, but overall happy with the results. I painted on "seeds" with edible marker and filled with white chocolate coconut mousse left over from spheres.
- meringue cookies with strawberry/black sesame: I piped meringue cookies (recipe) in different shapes to play around with what would hold up the best, and sprinkled pulverized freeze dries strawberries on some and powdered black sesame on others.
- dragon fruit jujubes: I pureed fresh golden dragon fruit and mixed it with simmered agar agar syrup then let it set in a thin layer in the fridge, cubed it up and it was ready to go (recipe).
- dragon fruit jellies: I used frozen dragon fruit puree (pitaya) that comes in a hot pink color with intense pigmentation, and used this recipe to make soft set jellies for accents.
- strawberry + dragon fruit mousse spheres: I followed my own fruit mousse recipe from the entremet project, replacing mango with reduced strawberry puree and a dash of the thawed pitaya puree. I piped the mousse in the same kind of spherical moulds as the white chocolate mousse and let them set in the freezer. The kids loved the leftovers from the mousse on their waffles for breakfast.
- strawberry jelly pearls: what's a crazy project without a dose of molecular gastronomy? I used fresh strawberries and agar agar to make fruit caviar. Easy to do, magical to witness, the kids really loved this one.
- candy melt curls: this is very straightforward, no recipe required, only a little bit of patience. I gently melted hot pink candy melts in the microwave, then dropped them in dollops on a strip of acetate and spread it with the back of the spoon to get a petal effect. I used tape to curl them slightly and let them set in a champagne flute in the fridge (glass just happened to be about the right width).
- black sesame lace cookies: I didn't want the black sesame to be the only flavor that didn't show up in more than one form, so I added these to the lineup last minute. I love lace cookies but I don't get to make them very often, so this sounded fun and I love the visual effect of the black sesame seeds floating in an airy wafer of sugary delight. I used this recipe to make a small batch and left some larger for shards while I cut others to small circle size while still hot from the oven so they cooled to a crisp in perfect little coins.
- fresh strawberries: just wanted to highlight these as well, the only secret here is the non-melting sugar. It's a nifty dessert pantry ingredient, essentially just powdered sugar with a bit of incorporated fat that prevents it from readily melting in surface moisture from desserts. I dipped the edges of a couple of halves strawberries in it to give them a bit of a highlight and put them directly on the cake.
Assembly
This is where my passion for mise-en-place really paid off. There were really two stages to assembling this cake - carving the layers and stacking them with buttercream, and decorating.
I did the first part the night before, letting each layer firm up. a bit in the fridge before placing the next to be more forgiving to uneven pressure when transferring the laters on top of each other. After the last layer firmed up, I wrapped everything in plastic to prevent the exposed edges of the cake from drying out. The strawberry cake is so deliciously moist that it kept really well, no syrup needed.
Then, after finishing dinner prep and with the casserole already in the oven, I set up my decorating station - all the toppings, all the tools I needed and of course, the cake. This was the easy and most satisfying part of the process, seeing it come together. Apart from eating it, of course, it was both delicious and well enjoyed by everyone in the family which always makes my heart sing. A wonderful birthday indeed!
We had a delightful family dinner to celebrate the day, and finished on a sweet note with slices of this cake. Obligatory crumb shot to show the nice and even layers, but also it how moist the layers of cake are throughout. Onto another exciting trip around the sun and many exciting projects to come!
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